• The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
  

My favorite album of all time. Introduced me to the notion of concept albums. The themes of death, whether it be accepting it, life after it, or dealing with it from an outside perspective, are beautifully written and tragically performed.

• The Upsides - The Wonder Years
  

Honestly, my intro to 1. my current favorite band, and 2. modern (2010-ish era) pop-punk. The themes of growing up ring truer every year for me.

• Suburbia: I've Given You All & Now I'm Nothing - The Wonder Years
  

Basically same reasons for The Upsides. Suburbia took what made The Upsides great, and improved upon it.

• The Greatest Generation - The Wonder Years
  

My favorite album by my favorite band. The third piece to the sort of trilogy that The Wonder Years had (maybe accidentally) made, along with The Upsides and Suburbia. All about growing old, anxiety and depressions, and loneliness, with a truly anthemic sound ringing throughout.

• Folie a Duex - Fall Out Boy
  

This album got way too much flack on release. It went way out of their normal style, in a good way. It's my favorite album by this band that used to be my favorite band. Still love them, but their last few releases have been... Eh.

• Take This To Your Grave - Fall Out Boy
  

Contrast this album to Folie a Duex. The fact that a band that started as a simple pop-punk band from Chicago can transition through so many sounds is still astounding to me. Plus, this album is basically at the peak of its genre. It's energetic, the lyrics are aggressive and pessimistic, with a snarky undertone. It fits a stereotype, true, but man, it fits it better than most have ever tried to do.

• All You Can Do - Watsky
  

Maybe it's weird to say that my "introduction" to hip-hop was by a white slam poet, but Watsky was an artist that I discovered at a time in life when I just needed some positivity. Funny enough, all my favorite songs come off his previous album, Cardboard Castles, but overall, I still feel like All You Can Do flows the best as an album. Almost as if the whole of this album is my favorite song from it. If that makes sense. I associate this album with a lot of memories from my first summer after high school and my first semester of college.

• American Candy - The Maine
  

This has recently moved on to this list. This album, to me, is all about self-confidence, and learning to feel that confidence inside of loneliness. It's tone is like finding the positivity wrapped up inside the negativity. It's in there somewhere. It's all about you finding it.

• Untitled - blink-182
  

It's abstract. It's got edge. It hits fast and it hits hard. It's blink at their peak. This is one of those albums that's hard to describe with words. It was a small split from their usual sound up to this point, going for a faster, harder sound in some tracks, and a more dark sound with the others. There's something special in it, though. It's got energy that's hard to find nowadays.

• Take Off Your Pants & Jacket - blink-182
  

It's a classic. Tell me if you heard "The Rock Show" or "First Date" right now you wouldn't start singing along. Like Take This To Your Grave, it's at the peak of its genre.

• Ocean Eyes - Owl City
  

This album is a relic, and I know Owl City isn't for everyone, but Ocean Eyes is an album I associate with my childhood. It's so uplifting, it's happy, and unlike a lot of albums on this list, there's not an ounce of negativity on it. It's happy, and it's got these dreamy vibes in the lyrics and the production that make it just a pleasure to listen to all the way through.

• The Long Road Out of Eden - The Eagles
  

The first album I ever bought with my own money. I know I said Ocean Eyes is an album I associate with my childhood, but... This one moreso. It reminds me of sitting in the passenger seat of my mom's brand-new 2005 Saturn, hearing her turn on the local country radio station, and singing along to the songs I grew up with as we drove through the valleys of Riverside county, California.

• Transgender Dysphoria Blues - Against Me!
  

The punk-est I'll probably ever get with my tastes, but that's not why this is one of my favorites. Besides the endless replayability, this album opened my mind. Transgender issues were never really something I had thought about up until this point, and maybe it's ignorant to say an album opened my mind to them, but... They did. Laura Jane Grace yells about the struggles of body dysphoria, and fitting in with where you know you belong. TDB is an album that honestly made me think in a way an album hadn't before, and I really, really cherish it for that.

• We Don't Have Each Other - Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties
  

I didn't expect to love this album as much as I did. It's a somber and depressing trip through the life of Aaron West, as written by the lead singer of my favorite band, Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years.. So am I biased on this? Maybe. But this album is one of those few that I can play all the way through without skipping a track. It flows like a book, thanks to the lyrics. I'm a sucker for the sad ones.

• Copacetic - Knuckle Puck
  

Snarkiness and apathy. Copacetic is angry, but it shows it with a smirk. The writer calls out the wrong-doers in their life in songs like "Pretense," all the while lifting up themselves with encouraging pieces like "Evergreen." This album has had different meanings to me in the almost-two years since it's release. It's given me a vent for my frustrations of past relationships, and it's given me motivation to put my left foot in front of my right.